Indian Travel Photography and Honeymoon | Gokarna

So this blog then is a cunning mix of Indian travel photography and honeymoon snaps.  Actually I see the whole thing as much more honeymoon snaps than anything else — but hopefully good enough to keep you entertained and fight against that youtube video of A Cat Dressed As A Shark Riding A Roomba (which my wife is more likely to be watching).  I shot the whole thing on film, on my Leica M7, the same way I did on our mini-moon in Cornwall last year. There’s a couple of reasons I do this a) because I think there’s something inherently romantic about film and b) as a way to separate work and lesiure.  The Canon 5D MkIII is an astonishing camera but I’ve come to associate it very much with work.  This way I get to stay fresh.  Oh and the unofficial third reason is I get to show off about owning a Leica M7… ;-)

Last time I was in India and trying my hand at any kind of Indian travel photography I was using the Canon 5D MkII.  (You can check out some of the shots here: https://nicktuckerphotography.com/portfolio/personal/india/)  The only problem with that is it’s a big, heavy, very obvious camera. No two ways about it.  If you’re pointing a DSLR at someone they’re going to know you’re taking their photo.  A Leica rangefinder on the other hand is about a third of the size, with an almost silent shutter.  However, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily easier to take the photos themselves.  The Leica is a manual focus camera which makes it very tricky to just put it up to your eye and snap discreetly.  It’s rumoured that Henri Cartier-Bresson could focus his Leica behind his back, but I’m not quite at that level yet!  However, what you do get shooting on film are images that come with a certain inbuilt nostalgia to them.  The tones and feel of the photos speak to us of the photos we grew up seeing coming back from Boots as 6x4s and stuck inside physical photo albums, and as Martin Parr says “We are in danger of having a whole generation – and this will continue into the future – that has no family albums, because people just leave them on their computer, and then suddenly they will be deleted.”  So I’m going the whole hog.  I’m shooting my holidays on film and I’m going to get them printed up, too…

In terms of the trip itself, we flew into Mumbai and got a train (General Class — because we booked our holiday ten days before we flew out so everything else had gone.  Which meant being packed into a cabin for 14 hours with virtually cushionless seats and people sleeping on the floor and overhead in the luggage racks.  It was kind of brilliant but we did take a flight back in the other direction…) travelling down to Gokarna and staying there for two weeks, having just about the most amazing time ever.  Here are the photos…

Interested in reading more about film?  Go to Film’s Not Dead here: F.N.D